Prey Star Amber Midthunder Was 'Mesmerized' By This Part Of The Movie
"Prey" surprised everyone when it was released, scoring a 92% rating with critics and an 81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Not only that, but Disney released a statement saying that "Prey" is their number one Hulu premiere to date. The film has received accolades for its fresh new story, placing the Predator in the 1700s, and also for using the Comanche Nation as the setting and hiring a largely indigenous cast. Director Dan Trachtenberg also decided that — after five sequels — it was time to go back to the roots of "Predator."
Trachtenberg wanted to bring back the feeling of surprise he felt, seeing the movie as a ten-year-old. "I remember seeing it in its mask form, going, 'Oh, that's what it looks like! That's the Predator.' And then you see it unmasked again in its final form, you go, 'Oh no, that's what it is.' That was such a special formula for that movie," he said in an interview with Bloody Disgusting. He also decided to use Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr., the SFX artists who had been part of the franchise since 1987 and were thrilled to work with Trachtenberg to try something different for "Prey." They were so successful that even star Amber Midthunder was hypnotized by the creature she had to take a stand against.
The details of the Predator's costume fascinated Midthunder
Amber Midthunder has been getting plenty of praise for her acting as protagonist Naru, and luckily she didn't have to worry about feigning fear to a green screen or a ball on a stick because the Predator was actually actor Dane DiLiegro in costume. "I was mesmerized by, like, the artistry and the detail of the suit and the head and everything," she said to Helen O'Hara in The Empire Film Podcast. "Cause at the time, the mysticism of how that got onto a person's body didn't...like, that veil had not been lifted, you know? I just saw like a monster in front of me, and I was like, 'wow.'"
While the majority of mainstream action movies nowadays use CGI to flesh out the more complex characters, "Prey" immediately stands out because of the use of an actual costumed person for Midthunder to fight. "With the teeth and the eyes and like the skin color, and they put this like goop on him that, like, when he touches me, it's gross and, like, it's all very real," Midthunder told The Empire Film Podcast. The 'goop' was a brilliant addition that was inspired by the ultimate sci-fi horror classic, "Alien." "We brought in some alien goop, the stuff that we've seen [in] the 'Alien' movies," director Dan Trachtenberg told Comicbook.com. Along with the horrifying new look, "Prey" has not only succeeded in mesmerizing Midthunder but audiences who can't get enough of this new, more frightening Predator.